Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 19 Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified Pilate really did want to be a part of this whole matter of dispute between the Jewish leaders and Jesus. He didn't see any real threat to his power, and only arrested and punished Jesus to appease the Jewish leaders. He realized there was surprisingly a large amount of people who wanted Jesus to be crucified.  The soldiers certainly didn't treat Jesus with any respect, as they forcibly placed a crown of thorns on his head, and dressed him up in a purple robe and also flogged him with whips. They had hoped their treatment of Jesus might calm the religious leaders down, but they cried all the more, " Crucify him! "  Pilate again stated that he found no reason to crucify Jesus. He told the Jewish leaders to crucify Jesus, if they wanted so badly to do it. The Jewish leaders gave their reasoning for their judgment by saying, " Jesus a mere man claimed to be the Son of God." This frightened

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 18 Jesus Arrested The Kidron Valley could also be described as a brook that went from the temple out to this valley. Water from the Passover season flowed from the altar and often contained the reddish blood from the Passover lambs. It was a foreshadowing of Jesus' blood, which would flow down from the cross. The place where he went we know from the other gospels is the Garden of Gethsemane. He had spent the night there praying. In the other gospel accounts, we know Jesus had asked the disciples to stay awake praying for him, but they all fell asleep. In the meantime Judas had arranged for a detachment of Roman soldiers and Jewish officials to arrest him.  The commentators say the word "detachment" would mean a large number of troops. It appears they were preparing for a conflict with Jesus and his disciples. Jesus asked them who they wanted and they replied, " Jesus of Nazareth ". Rather than shying away from their inquiry h

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 17   Jesus Prays to Be Glorified It's Jesus' last night before he goes to the cross, and he is doing something he always did when something important is about to happen. He prays. And there is a interesting structure to his prayer. First, he prays that he would be glorified. His whole mission was to glorify the Father, and now he is getting ready to be glorified.  Jesus refers to the authority the Father has given him, including the authority to grant eternal life to those the Father had called. Jesus defines eternal life as,  "They know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." This is in large part what Jesus' message has been about. He was sent to reveal the Father's love, so that they might know the Father. He also came so they could know Him, who is equally God. At the heart of what we believe is a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. God wants to know us, and this is what eternal l

  Click Here to Read or Listen to John 16 Jesus Warns the Disciples Jesus tells the disciples that he has given them these promises so they will not fall away. He goes even as far as to say that there will be a time when someone thinks they are doing God a service by killing them. Though they think they know the Father, they show by their ignorance that they don't know Jesus, or the Father.  Though Jesus is going back to the Father, no one is asking him about it. He knows partly this is because they are already beginning to deal with the grief of him leaving. Yet, he reminds them that it is good for him to go away, because if he does, he will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.  Sin is basically the sin of unbelief or not trusting in Jesus. It is only by being convicted of one's sin by the Holy Spirit and believing in Jesus does one find eternal life. Righteousness is the righteousness that J

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 15 Vineyards were all over the area where Jesus and his disciples lived, so it would make sense for Jesus to use this metaphor of the Vine and the Branches. Jesus was a master teacher, so he always took examples from nature to teach spiritual truths. I.e. The Sower and the Seed, The Mustard Seed, Yeast in the Bread In this case Jesus calls himself the "True Vine". Once again Jesus is making a claim to be God. In the Old Testament, Israel was the "True Vine" of God. They were God's instrument to make his will known. Jesus is the True Vine and the Father is the Gardener.  Importantly, the purpose of a vine is to bear fruit. The purpose of a Christian is to bear spiritual fruit. So you can see the connection. Jesus says the key to being a fruit-bearing Christian is to stay connected to the Vine, which is Him. The natural outcome of staying connected to, or abiding in Jesus, is to bear fruit. We don't have to try and make fru

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 14 Jesus Comforts His Disciples John 14-17 are some of my favorite chapters in the bible. Jesus has just washed his disciples feet, Judas has betrayed him, and he has predicted that Peter would deny him three times. At this point the disciples might have needed some comfort. There were a lot of unknowns at this point. They knew Jesus was going to die, be raised after three days, and return the Father. But, what exactly did all this mean for them?   So, Jesus starts out chapter 14 by saying, "Do not let your hearts be troubled!"  Jesus had empathy for them. He knew how they were feeling. Jesus urged them to not only trust in God but also in Him. Why?  Because he was going was a place that had lots and lots of rooms. He was preparing a place for them for when they died. If Jesus prepared a place for them, he would certainly come back to take them with him. They he said something interesting,  "You know the way to the place I am going!&q

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 13 Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet For Jesus' last meal with his disciples, he does something dramatic to reveal the type of Messiah he is. The Passover meal is also called Jesus' Last Supper. The devil had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus and the meal was "go time".  After the meal, it was customary for the servant of the house to wash the guests' feet. But tonight this job was reserved for Jesus. He took off his outer garment, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin.  Then, he began to wash the disciples dirty, dusty, smelly feet. Remember they wore sandals and most of the days walked down dusty roads. We've all seen what our feet look like after a day like this in sandals. Peter thought it was below Jesus to do such a menial job reserved for the servants of the house.  After all, this was not the type of Messiah Jesus envisioned.  But Jesus is dead serious about the message he is conveying

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 12   Jesus Anointed at Bethany A little later Jesus is now at the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany. One can only imagine how grateful Lazarus is to be eating anything at all. Martha was serving everyone, and Mary took a pint of expensive nard perfume, poured it on Jesus feet, and wiped it with her hair.  This seems a little bit strange unless you understand the culture they lived in.  Mary’s gift was remarkably humble. When a guest entered the home, usually the guest’s feet were washed with water and the guest’s head was anointed with a dab of oil or perfume. Here, Mary used this precious ointment and anointed the feet of Jesus. She considered her precious ointment only good enough for His feet. “To attend to the feet was the task of the most lowly slave. Thus Mary’s action denoted great humility as well as great devotion.” (Morris) Judas complained about how the money could have been used for the poor. As Judas' later actions at th

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 11 The Death of Lazarus Jesus learns that his friend Lazarus is sick and near death from his sisters Mary and Martha. We know from other verses that Jesus was close to this family. His sisters tell Jesus the " one he loves is sick ". Apparently this was a serious sickness as Jesus says, "This sickness will not end in death." Though Lazarus was very sick, Jesus stayed there for two more days. He said that Lazarus' sickness would glorify him through the sign he would do. The disciples wonder why he would go right back to Judea, where he was a wanted man. But Jesus says, "Are there not 12 hours in the day?" Jesus is saying that he has a lot of work to do during the day. There will be a time when darkness will cover the earth, but while there is still light out, he has work to do. He is the light of the world. Jesus tells the disciples that he is going to wake up Lazarus, implying that he was going to raise him from the

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 10 The Good Shepherd and His Sheep In chapter 10, Jesus uses the common metaphor of a "shepherd", which would be very familiar to everyone in his culture. There are also many references to "shepherds" in the Old Testament. Ultimately Jesus is telling the Pharisees they are not very good shepherds at all. They don't really have the sheep's interest in mind and really don't care about them at all.  They are false shepherds. They are like the strangers who enter the sheep pen and try to call the sheep out. But the sheep will not recognize them and will run away from them. Then, Jesus says that he is the, " Gate for the sheep." The gatekeeper, who is God, opens the door for him. Jesus says, "I am the gate for the sheep ." Another "I am" statement where Jesus is claiming to be God. On top of that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. The sheep listen to his familiar voice and trust he will take care of

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 9 Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind This is an interesting story about if sin is correlated to physical impairments like blindness. Jesus and his disciples came across a blind man and the disciples asked,  " Did this man or his parents sin? "  First of all, a prevailing view in the Jewish culture is that sin can cause a disease like blindness. Secondly, they were referring to the Old Testament verses, where it says, " The sins of fathers can be visited upon future generations!"   To this Jesus replies, "Neither! " His explanation is that the man's blindness will give Jesus another opportunity to show the world a miraculous sign that points out He is the Son of Man. The darkness would be coming soon, so they needed to shine Jesus' light into the world while he was there.  Jesus used an usual healing method. He rubbed dirt and saliva together, and applied the mud to the blind man's eyes. Then, he told him to wash i

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 8 The Woman Caught in Adultery Some earlier manuscripts do not include this story in the bible, but I am glad the NIV translation kept it in. Why? Because this story adds yet another situation where we see Jesus' character, love, and grace in this case with a woman caught in adultery. Everything in the story is completely consistent with everything else we have learned about Jesus in his other personal encounters in the book of John.  The scene is very dramatic, as the Pharisees brought in this woman and used her to try and trap Jesus by asking what they should do with this woman? They claimed according to the book of Moses they were supposed to stone this woman for such a sin.  Is this true that the Mosaic Law said this? And if so, how was it applied in the Jewish culture of Jesus' time?  It is true that adultery was a capital offense under Jewish law, but the rules for evidence in capital cases were extremely strict. The actual act had to

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 7 Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles Jesus hung out in Galilee for fear of the Jews, but the Festival of Tabernacles was drawing near. His brothers urged him to go to Jerusalem against the wishes of his disciples, though it says his brothers did not believe in him themselves. This was a festival to celebrate the harvest, as they gathered the grain in tabernacles or booths.  So Jesus told his disciples to go to the festival, and he stayed around Galilee apparently not joining them. He cited the fact that the Jews hated him and his time was not ready yet.  Unbeknownst to them, Jesus went to the festival. Jesus wanted to make a secret appearance.  We see one of the reasons why Jesus did not come with his disciples as the Pharisees were lying in wait for him. He was clearly a person of interest. The crowd was giving Jesus mixed reviews some saying, "He is a good man". Others thought he was deceiving people. Regardless of their feelings,

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 6   Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and many people followed him. They followed him, because they saw the signs that Jesus had performed. Jewish went up on a mountainside with his disciples. The Jewish Passover was near.  When Jesus saw the large crowds coming, he asked Philip where they could get enough bread to feed the people. When Philip saw the amount of people coming, he was very doubtful they had enough resources to feed all these people. Andrew, Peter's brother, saw a boy with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, but didn't think it would go very far.  Jesus told the people to sit down, which sounds pretty understandable, until you realize there were 5,000 people. If I were the disciples I would have been wondering how Jesus planned to feed all these people with just 5 loaves and 2 fish. But Jesus took the loaves and the fish, gave thanks, and distributed it to all who were seated.  When the